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What you missed: covering Effingham County, Port Wentworth

DeAnn Komanecky is editor of Effingham Now and covers news, people, events and more in Effingham County and Port Wentworth.

Posted March 10, 2009 02:07 pm - Updated March 10, 2009 02:13 pm

Wanted: Handyman for City of Rincon

If you were a few minutes late to the Rincon council meeting last night, you were out of luck – at least for the first hour and a half.

A locked front door greeted latecomers, leaving them standing outside until the council broke for its closed-door session and those attending the open meeting stepped out.

A writer for another local publication told City Clerk Wanda Hendrix and City Planner LaMeisha Hunter he’d been locked out, while he’d seen another woman try to enter the meeting and leave after finding a locked door.

According to the Georgia Opening Meetings Act :O.C.G.A. 50-14-1 (2):

(c) The public at all times shall be afforded access to meetings declared open to the public pursuant to subsection

(b) of this Code section. Visual, sound, and visual and sound recording during open meetings shall be permitted.

The Act also says any action taken when a meeting isn’t open is not binding.

(b) Except as otherwise provided by law, all meetings as defined in subsection

(a) of this Code section shall be open to the public. Any resolution, rule, regulation, ordinance, or other official action of an agency adopted, taken, or made at a meeting which is not open to the public as required by this chapter shall not be binding.

Hendrix said the city has had ongoing problems with the door and had previously tried to find someone to repair it.